


Sunlight After Dark

by vlaplomb



Category: Purple Hyacinth - Ephemerys & Sophism (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluffffffyy, Height difference, Kym and Will staying after hours at the office, Kym starts joking around with Will, Not really though, all of the characters listed other than kywi make a very short appearance, but once he gets serious she gets sHy, maybe spicy if you squint?, other characters in mention, real relationship is broom x Will's ass, smh will paperwork isn't sexy, uwu bb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:48:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28385010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vlaplomb/pseuds/vlaplomb
Summary: It's after hours at the office, and there is no way Kym can complete all of her paperwork before the night is over.  Her only hope is bribing the lieutenant into extending her deadline.  So Kym does what Kym does best:Completely embarrasses herself.(and maybe woos the lieutenant while she's at it)
Relationships: William Hawkes/Kym Ladell
Comments: 14
Kudos: 46





	Sunlight After Dark

**Author's Note:**

> note for anyone on my Instagram/the kywi cult: this is not the drabble I was promising 👁️👄👁️ I wrote this months ago and just now decided to post it oops
> 
> I wish all kywi stans a wonderful evening (morning here)

Kym tapped the eraser end of her pencil against her lips lightly, in sync with the ticking of time passing in the office.  _ Slower than usual,  _ she mused, her brows dipping into a slight frown. Her eyes wandered over to glance at the clock. 5 minutes until 8.

It had been a long day indeed.

A yawn to her right startled her out of her reverie. Turning, Kym watched as Lauren stood from her desk, adjusting her papers and tossing her coat over her shoulder. “I’m clocking out,” she said into the nearly-empty office. “Love you, Kym. Don’t stay too late.”

“Me? Working late? Never,” Kym shot back, leaning back in her chair to stretch her shoulders. She winked at the unamused Lauren. “You’re usually the one staying way later than me. What’s the rush? Hot date with Kieran?”

Rolling her eyes, Lauren shoved her chair into her desk. “No, you and I both know this is far overtime - I’m not early in the least. In fact, I’m pretty sure Kieran is still here. I asked him to watch out for you after I leave.”

“Ooh la la, mind if I flirt with him a little?”

Lauren laughed, seeming only mildly ticked. “Don’t you dare,” she shot back.  _ At least she displayed some semblance of annoyance,  _ Kym thought grimly, fiddling with her pencil again.

“Rest assured, I will leave him alone,” Kym said, all smiles as Lauren smirked and nodded.

“Well then, good night.”

“Sleep.” Kym would have added well, but even just  _ sleep _ was a good enough goal for Lauren. Kym’s pencil fell back into step with the clock, and she ran her fingers through her hair, surveying her paperwork. Procrastination really had not served her well - how was she ever supposed to get any of this done?

_ I suppose I could always pay Kieran to do it _ . A smirk played with Kym’s lips. Nothing like a little friendly incentive - sure, she had agreed to not bother Kieran, but Lauren’s definition of “bothering” was heavily implied to be “flirting.” Monetary bribery, on the other hand… not as forbidden.

“Goodnight, Kym,” Kieran called from the hallway, coat over his shoulder.

Kym narrowed her eyes. “Hey, Lauren told me you were watching out for me so I don’t get slit across the neck like a certain someone.”

Stopping in his tracks, Kieran turned, pushing his glasses further up his nose. He did it so often, Kym was shocked that they hadn’t receded back into his forehead by now. “I was, but I passed on the duty to Lieutenant Hawkes. He said he would be here for a bit longer.”

“Oh, am I just the precinct child, now? Whose name is next on the list for ‘babysitting Kym’ shifts?”

“Hopefully you’ll both be going home soon, Sarge, and there won’t be a need. Besides, everyone else went home when they were supposed to. We were the last four working in the office.”

Kym waved her hand. “Fair enough. Would you be willing to do some of my paperwork for me?”

“For how much?”

“Five bucks.”

“Per document?”

“Sold.” Dusting off her stack of papers ceremoniously, she moved to make the transaction.

Kieran laughed. “I’m kidding, you and I both know that’s unreasonable. Plus, Hawkes would have our heads.”

“Right,” Kym said thoughtfully, pausing her deposit of the papers midair. “You said the lieutenant is still here?”

“Ooh, thinking of trying to persuade him into letting you off a little easy?”

Kym reddened. “What are you implying?”

“I didn’t imply anything!” Kieran sang, shrugging on his coat as he waltzed down the hallway. “Have a  _ wonderful _ evening, Sergeant!”

Scowling, Kym clutched her arms, hugging herself in the now-empty office. Well, almost empty, because apparently Will was still around here somewhere. She shivered, picking up her papers and realigning them for the millionth time as she stood at her desk, pondering her next move. She had been at it since they returned from patrol that afternoon and had only made it through half of her paperwork.  _ There is no way I can finish all of this before it’s due tomorrow. _

Footsteps sounding in the hallway froze Kym in her tracks. Either there was an assassin in the hall who had been waiting for Kym to be left alone for five minutes, or the lieutenant was returning to the office room from wherever he had been. The thoughts racing through Kym’s mind had her hoping for the assassin option.  _ Damn Kieran. When did he become so brazen? _

Perhaps the worst part was that his implication wasn’t entirely an original thought - but that would just be plain unprofessional. There was no way he would let her off easier through any amount of bribery, monetary or...otherwise.

That’s what she assured herself as she perched atop her desk, thumbing through her papers in an innocent manner.

“I’m floored that there’s even space for you on that desk, what with all the unfinished paperwork you have laying around here,” Will remarked, stepping into the room. 

Kym swept her bangs away from her face, feigning irritation. “Are you calling me fat?” she joked halfheartedly, swinging her legs over the other side of her desk.

“Of course not, I-”

“What do you really think of me,  _ Willame? _ ” She cringed at her own words.  _ Curse you, Kieran, for putting these dumb ideas in my head. _

He took a step back, bumping into his own desk as he did so. “This is completely unsolicited.”

Kym sighed.  _ I’m just the worst at flirting, aren’t I? I scared Kieran off, and now Will, is there even anyone else left for me to hit on? Lukas is scary. Hermann is an old fart. March is- _

_ Wait a damn minute. How old is March? Aside from a possibly large age gap, he seems nice enough- _

“Heavens, no,” Will muttered, facepalming. “I will not hesitate to vomit.”

_ Shoot. He heard all of that? That means he heard.. _ . “I think I am going to vomit.”

Will paled. “Let’s think about something else.”

They stood in a silent staredown across the office, the only sound being the clock ticking away and the heater kicking in as it occasionally did. Kym drummed her hands against the desk behind her, unable to think about anything else. Careful not to verbalize her thoughts, she glanced Will up and down.  _ Is this really just about the paperwork? _

Kym shook her head, averting her gaze. “What are you thinking about?” Will asked.

“Watermelon!” she blurted out, leaping off the desk.

“I see.” He watched her for a moment, gaze heavy on her. “It makes sense. You get that look about you.”

Picking up a packet, Kym began to rove her eyes over it, hiding her face. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah, as if you’re craving it. Like you would do anything for even the smallest slice.” He panned his gaze over toward the darkened window, a look of bemusement crossing his face. “The look of true love.”

Kym narrowed her eyes at the text in front of her, hands shaking so violently that the words blurred before her eyes. Either he was dumb as dirt, or he was trolling her. Significantly. While the latter seemed unlikely, the former she deemed even less probable. So she was going to show William Hawkes.

By trolling him harder.

Kym laughed, a simper crawling across her face as she gently laid the packet she held down on the desktop. Will met her eyes with confusion. “You got me there, Lieutenant.”

“What do you mean?”

She took a step toward him, and then another, placing one foot in front of the other until they stood only a foot apart. “I do want something. But I wasn’t thinking about watermelon.”

The faintest of blushes crept up Will’s neck and into his cheekbones, lighting his pale face in the dim office lighting. “Oh?”

Kym nodded, finding herself on her toes, leaning up to meet his level. His head dipped slightly, thankfully, because Kym was far too short to even come close to reaching his height on her own. Even grasping onto his collar with both of her hands for balance, she still couldn’t quite reach him. He didn’t budge any further. “I want-” she closed the distance between them, planting a light kiss on the highest place she could reach of his neck- “less paperwork.”

Will went rigid in her grip. She smiled, resting her chin on his shoulder. “Yeah, you know what’s really sexy?” She brushed her lips against his neck again, just an inch away. “Less paperwork.”

He took her by the wrist, pulling her hand from his collar, but she persisted. “Will, if you extend my deadline, I will do  _ whatever  _ you want.” Straining, she placed her lips on his jaw. “Except paperwork.”

Surprisingly, he hadn’t stopped her yet. “So, what do you say? Will you lessen my workload? Please,” she asked, trying to sound pleading, breath warm on his skin. He leaned toward her slightly, easing her back onto her heels. Her heart fluttered as he bent down, lips close to her ear.  _ This time, you’ve really done it, Kym Ladell. You have successfully seduced a man into giving you less paperwork and extending your deadline. You should be so proud- _

“No.”

Kym shoved him away as quickly as she’d come onto him. “No? What do you mean,  _ no? _ Do you even understand-”

“I can’t move the deadline, and that paperwork is required,” he said, melancholy swimming in his eyes that Kym couldn’t quite place. So much was happening in that empty office room that she was unsure what his dismay could be referring to.

“I understand.” Kym shuffled, suddenly too uncomfortable to conjure up a retort.  _ What now? Do I ask him to forget that happened? Do I play it off? _

“But because I am nice, I will stay and help you with it.”

Kym’s head snapped up, eyes finding him smiling warmly at her surprise. “Really?” He nodded, and Kym found herself surging forward, closing the gap between them, her lips capturing that warm, infectious smile for real this time. Will stiffened again, but then seemed to melt, settling her back down on her feet that she hadn’t realized had near left the ground so she didn’t have to strain, slanting his lips against hers. Only after a seemingly short minute of absolute liplock did she realize what she was doing.

Kym leaned back, separating from him. “Oh no.”

Will grimaced, swiping his sleeve across his face as he took a step away from her. “We messed up.”

Kym scrambled behind her for her unfinished papers, suddenly shivering despite being flooded with warmth. “I, uh, meant to say thank you, ummm. If your offer still stands, here is half of my paperwork. What is your rate?” She felt dumb asking, but she had offered to pay Kieran - the least she could do was extend the offer to Will.

Holding out his hands for the papers, Will kept a straight face, looking her dead in the eyes. “One kiss per paper.”

Kym slammed the papers into his chest. “Dammit, when did everyone in this office get so damn smooth without me?” she yelled, heat chasing across her face. As Will laughed, Kym scooped up the rest of her papers in a haphazard fashion, making for the door in double steps.

“Where are you going?”

“To the archives! I can’t bear to be in the same room as you!” Kym hollered back, ducking around the corner.  _ The nerve! _ she thought, stomping down the dark hallway. If she wasn’t so angry at him for directing his smoothness at her, she might congratulate him.  _ Willame  _ had just transformed into  _ Willascivious  _ in two seconds flat.

Kym’s footfalls echoed on the hardwood as she neared the archives, the doorway looming. Upon entering, she slid her hand over the wall in search of the light switch to no avail.  _ Come on, _ she thought frantically, forgetting all of her office antics. The dark ebbed in on her as she struggled, haunting and deadly, reminiscent of when another coworker of hers had stayed late and met a certain fate in the darkness of the archives. Her knuckles bloomed with white while she debated staying. Huffing to clear her shakiness, she ran back down the hallway, hugging her papers to her chest.

“Back so soon?” Will asked in that innocent yet somehow smug way of his, already seated at her -  _ her  _ \- desk, signing off on several papers. She grumbled, hauling the chair from his own desk over to where he was seated, situating herself as far down the table as possible from him.

“The archives are kind of terrifying at night.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, pressing his lips together as his pen danced across the page. “I’m sorry about the whole - you know. I was kidding.”

Kym sighed. “I wasn't,” she mumbled with her stare glued to the table, uncapping her pen in an exasperated motion. She could sense as he glanced up, ink paused, staring at her.

“What do you mean?”

She drilled the cap of her pen into the paper, driving a dent against the white. “I mean, I’d do it again sometime. Kiss you, that is. If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t.”

They shared a smile across the desk. “As far as anyone else knows, though, I did all of this paperwork myself.”

Will nodded. “And there will be no word of this -  _ any _ of this - tomorrow?”

“Deal.”

“Deal.”

* * *

After several hours of working on paperwork in absolute silence, the lieutenant and the sergeant headed home. When they agreed to not speak of their interaction the next day, one might have thought that they also agreed not to speak to each other upon witnessing the following couple of hours. And that was fine with Kym, perfectly fine.

It was also perfectly fine with her when he wordlessly began to accompany her home, though she knew her house was not en route to his.

It was more than fine when Will noticed her fumbling with her bare, freezing hands and the shallow pockets of her cursed coat from the women’s section and took her hand, enveloping it in his and dropping their clasped hands into his much larger coat pocket. Kym didn’t need to worry about her other hand freezing off - every time his thumb casually rubbed hers, warmth coursed through her, one hand to the other. They fell into step side by side, their footfalls covering each other’s and becoming that of one entity. When Will slowed down ever so slightly, as if to say,  _ I want this to last just a little while longer _ , it didn’t get past Kym.

She didn’t want to leave him when they finally came upon her house.

“This is me.” Kym jutted her thumb towards the house, feeling the need to whisper in the dark openness of the neighborhood.

“So it is,” Will said, dropping her hand and shoving both of his deep into his pockets.

“Thank you for walking me home and helping me with my paperwork and...being nice? For a change?” The words fell out of her mouth in a mechanical stream, but she managed to catch herself before she thanked him for anything else and made this exchange even more awkward than it already was. “Yeah. Bye.”

Cringing, she took a dramatic step off the sidewalk, swiveling on her heel and stalking up her front walk. Feeling Will’s gaze on her back, she hopped up the steps, nonchalant as ever, and rested her hand on the doorknob.

_ Shit. I’m going to wake my parents up. _

Kym bit her lip, digging the key out of her pocket. Perhaps if she opened the door as quickly as possible, she could sneak through without disturbing them? The last thing she needed was to be assaulted with questions at this godforsaken hour - 1 am? 2 am? Kym knew better than to check her pocket watch - it wasn’t like it would be any good indication.

“Are you ever going to go inside?”

“ACK!” Kym exclaimed, swinging her arm out behind her. In one swift movement of her right arm and a deft shuffling with her left, Kym found that she had pinned a too-exhausted-to-be-surprised Will against the door by the shoulder, ready to carve out one of his sapphire eyes with her house key, handily maneuvered between her knuckles.

Will stared past her keys at her blankly, arm catching her wrist. “What is this, the second? Or third time this evening you’ve tried to take advantage of me?”

“Shut  _ up _ ,” Kym growled, fending off a grin as she struggled to free her arm. The jagged edge of the key shook dangerously close to Will’s iris. “I could blind you.”

“Please don’t.”

“Do you think you can play piano blind?”

“I mean…” he glanced off to the side, pondering it. “Probably?”

“Then there is nothing keeping me from carving out your eye and  _ relishing _ it.” Furrowing her brow, Kym persisted, perpetuating the quasi arm wrestling competition that she was losing. The tip of her key grazed the corner of Will’s eyelid.

She’d never do it, of course-

“Wait!” Will snapped his eyes shut. “If you blind me, I won’t be able to see your face light up when you tease me about being one-eyed. Or anything else, for that matter.”

Kym faltered. “Idiot, trying to flatter me into sparing you - you’re copying me!”

“And I won’t be able to see your effervescent grin-”

“Who uses that word? Nerds or something? Is it offensive?” she joked.

“Or your frown when you’re drowning in paperwork-”

“Am I cute when frustrated? Asking for a friend.”

“Or what the price is on watermelons at the farm stand, and then I won’t ever be able to get you one.”

Kym slipped her arm back out of his grasp instantaneously, stepping aside to make way for inertia to kick in and propel Will forward. He stumbled, desperately trying to regain his footing beside her. “You got me.”

Wincing, Will buried his face in his hands, shielding his eyes from Kym’s keys. “The things I do just to keep my sight.”

“Well, I did want you to be able to see well enough to walk yourself home - like you were  _ supposed _ to be doing before you scared me shitless on my own front porch.” Kym grinned at him, blinking furiously. “You can go effervesce your way on home, now.”

“Sorry I scared you,” he said, sheepish as he dropped his hands from his face. Kym now wondered if he had been hiding his eyes from her makeshift switchblade - or his reddened cheeks from her line of sight.

She cocked an eyebrow. “Just why did you follow me up here, Hawkes?”

“You walked away without giving me a chance to bid you goodnight.”

Kym snorted. “Okay? Just  _ yell it _ , it’s okay, you would have been far enough from the house not to awaken anyone, but since we’re here... _ good night _ .” She whispered the final part, as though the events that had just transpired hadn’t just woken up the whole house. Her line of sight fell wayward to the living room window, a lamp alight in the corner. Had that been on when she first arrived back at the house?

“I don’t think you get it, Kym,” Will said, leaning closer, his cheeks tinged pink. “I wanted to kiss you goodnight.”

“Oh.” Her face warmed, a fire lighting under the butterflies in her stomach. “Do you still want to?”

“Desperately. If you’ll let me.”

“That’s nice.”

Chuckling, he cupped her cheek. Kym closed her eyes, letting him bend down this time to meet her lips. The nighttime chill left her as Will let his hand drift from her face, pulling her into a hug. Smiling against him, Kym reached up to card through his hair, disheveling his annoyingly perfect golden locks. If William Hawkes wanted to be scandalous, Kym was not going to pass up the opportunity to make him look the part, even if no one else would get to see it. Even if it was just for her own enjoyment. Will didn’t seem to notice or care as he embraced her, their kiss much slower and passionate than whatever happened back at the office. She laughed as he took a step forward, backing her up against the siding and pulling away to kiss her forehead and the apples of each of her cheeks. His warm sigh caressed her beauty mark as he dipped down to capture her lips again, the feeling of the curve of his smile etching itself into her memory.

She could stay like this forever.

“What the hell?” a voice interjected.

But forever wasn’t in the cards.

Kym tightened her grip on Will, prying her lips from his and wincing in the sliver of light cast from the front door. Her mother gasped. 

“Who is it?” she heard her father call from inside.

“A strange man is eating my sweet, innocent baby’s face off on our own front porch.”

Snickering, all Kym could do was watch as her mother retrieved the broom that she handily kept behind the door and began to beat Will squarely in the back with it. The lieutenant frantically pulled away from Kym, patting her on the shoulder before starting off in a jog down the front steps. “I’m sorry, ma’am- Mrs. Ladell!”

She chased him off the porch, yelling. “You’d better be! This is never happening again!” The matching grins that Kym and Will bore, however, suggested otherwise. As Will retreated down the sidewalk with Kym’s mother shaking her broom at his back, Kym came to a realization with a smirk.

_ He never really did say goodnight, did he? _

“You, young lady,” Mrs. Ladell grumbled, dragging the broom back onto the porch. “Where have you been this evening?”

“I was at the station, doing paperwork.”

“With him? Where’s Lauren?”

“Yes, with him. Lauren went home. To sleep.”

Her mother nodded. “Good. But she left you alone with that man?”

“Will, Mama. She left me with Will, the lieutenant, and he helped me finish up my reports so I wouldn’t be there all night.”

“The lieutenant,” she said thoughtfully. Kym nodded, holding her breath. “Well...I suppose you should invite him to dinner sometime.”

Kym nodded, a dreamy smile of bliss plastered across her face as she followed her mother inside. That indeed.

* * *

“Soooo, Kym, how’d everything work out last night?”

Kym froze at the sound of Kieran’s voice, hands clutching her completed paperwork suspended over the growing pile on Lila’s desk. Mind racing, Kym flashed him the brightest grin. “I got my paperwork done, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Well, I can see that,” Kieran said, cocking one hip as he leaned against the desk. “But was the paperwork the only thing you did yesterday?”

With a nervous laugh, Kym deposited her paperwork in its place and turned to head back to her seat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’ll spell it out for you:  _ did you seduce the lieutenant? _ ”

His gaze bore into her spine as Kym flushed, refusing to turn around. Before she had the chance to utter a response, Lauren was at her side. “Kieran, what did you do?”

He smirked. “Why do you always assume it was me? In fact, that’s exactly what I’m asking Kym at the moment, but it’s more a matter of  _ who _ did she do.”

Lauren’s eyes widened as she grabbed Kym’s shoulders, steering her back towards them. “You look guilty.”

Kym laughed nervously, pulling them off to the side of the room. The three huddled over by the window, heads together as if they were plotting an overthrow of the office. “Alright, I’ll tell you two since you let Will and I in on your relationship.”  _ And also because there’s no point in lying to Lauren anyway.  _ Lauren clapped her hands together silently, leaning forward in earnest. “Will and I kissed, and then he helped me finish my paperwork.”

Lauren gasped, squeezing Kym’s arm so hard she thought it might fall off. “That’s so cute! I knew it would happen eventually.”

“Really?” Kym blushed, finding it unnecessary to divulge the fact that she had peppered his neck with kisses beforehand, or how Will suddenly became a smooth talker, or how he walked her home in the dark even though her house wasn’t exactly on the way to his, or how he kissed her  _ again _ , until her mother burst out onto the front porch, chasing him off their property with a broom.

“And then what happened?” Kieran asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively. “Don’t tell me you two did it in the archives, I won’t be able to set foot in there for the rest of the day.”

“No!” Kym yelped, covering her ears. “We kissed, that was  _ it _ -”

“My word, you’re unbelievable.”

“Will!” Kym winced, turning to come face to chest with the absolute last person she wanted to see. He glared down at her, letting her squirm under his gaze. It was hard to imagine in that moment that this was the man who had so tenderly kissed her goodnight just seven hours earlier - and yet, she somehow did, causing her to flush an even brighter hue.

“That’s it. You broke the deal.”

The knowing look passing from Lauren to Kieran didn’t escape Kym, but she chose not to focus on it. “Sorry…”

He leaned down to her ear, whispering. “You are actually stupid. I am never kissing you again.”

Kym glanced over to Lauren and Kieran, lip curling upwards. “I just love when Will whispers sweet nothings in my ear-”

“You are impossible!” he groaned, already huffing away in the most dramatic way that William Hawkes could manage. His words as he floated around the corner floated through the office for all of their coworkers to hear. “I despise you with every fiber of my being.” Kym grinned blithely, nodding at her two friends.

“He doesn’t,” Lauren said with a smirk. Kym nodded.

She already knew - but it didn’t hurt to hear it from the human lie detector.

**Author's Note:**

> me throughout this fic: I am just going to sprinkle in the fact that Kym is smol
> 
> Anyway thank you for reading 😌 that other kywi one-shot will be posted next week ig and the mild spice drabble...I guess whenever I feel like it bc I wrote it last night 😏
> 
> AND THANKS LIV FOR THE BETA (?) y'all should see Liv's comments on the doc JFKSKSKLS I changed some things since you last read it hon 💅


End file.
